This document provides an overview of different types of essays, including narrative, expository, persuasive, descriptive, cause and effect, and compare and contrast essays. For each type, it discusses the key characteristics and components. It provides guidance on how to structure each type of essay, with tips on introductions, thesis statements, body paragraphs, and conclusions. Sensory details, active verbs, and comparisons are some techniques recommended for descriptive essays.

1. Chairman Mao Zedong High
School
ENGLISH 2nd LANGUAGE
Types of Essays
By: Mr. Fillipus Lineekela

2. Introduction
Although the ability to write is an in-borne gift as far as
a having a natural aptitude for words and their
management, it is also the result of planning, directed
effort and practice. All of which can be taught skills as
long as a person is willing to learn the steps and apply
them correctly.

3. Exit Learning Outcomes
By the end of this unit you should be able to:

4. Different Types of Essays
• There are many different types of essays and each one
has its own unique characteristics and ways to best
write them. The rest of this unit will discuss each of
the essays and their characteristics.

5. Types of Essays
• Narrative essay
• Expository essay
• Persuasive essay
• Descriptive essay
• Cause and effect essay
• Compare and Contrast essay

6. Narrative Essay
• A narrative is a story
• A narrative essay is a story that has a specific point
– A narrative essay strives to teach a lesson or
– A narrative essay strives to make a specific point
– A narrative essay is not a diary entry – the story is linked to the
purpose of the essay

7. Narrative Essay
What is a Narrative Essay?
• Tells a story
• Has a clear beginning, middle, and end
• Sequence of events is very important and story can follow plot
chart pretty well.
• Needs to have words that move reader through time
• Can you think of any???
– Before, after, during, next, etc…

8. What Should Be Included in a Narrative
Essay?
• Often written in 1st person E.g. I or we – because it is based
on a personal story
• Can also be written in 3rd person
• Can never be written in 2nd person
• Has specific sensory details to get the reader hooked on the
story
• Is developed in chronological order
• Has verbs that help paint a picture and draw in the reader

9. What Else Does the Narrative Essay Need?
• Since this is a story, the narrative essay needs everything a
story needs (these are known as the story elements):
• Has a plot
• Has characters
• Has a problem
• Has a climax
• Often uses dialogue

10. Expository Essay
What is an Expository Essay?
• Tells how to do something or how to define something
• Needs supporting details---more than just a list of examples

11. …....
•Originally used as an essay to explain, Expository
is now a general term.
•builds on critical thinking and research.
•foundation for all other types of academic
writing.
•common college assignments

12. Characteristics of an Expository Essay
•Defined and narrowed thesis in introduction
•Evidence, examples, statistics, or facts in each
paragraph in the body of the paper to support the
thesis
•Information presented fairly and in a non-biased
manner, showing both sides of the topic
•The use of third-person rather than I or me

13. Structure of an Expository Essay
•Introduction (including the thesis statement)
•Supporting body paragraphs
•Conclusion

14. Thesis Statement
•The thesis statement conveys your opinion
about a topic—the main idea of your essay. The
thesis is part of the introduction of your essay,
usually positioned at or near the end of the
introduction.

15. Introduction
•The introduction also includes:
•pertinent background information
•definition of unfamiliar terms
• other information your audience must know in
order to understand your position.
An introduction needs to grab the attention of your
readers and make them want to continue reading.

16. Body and Conclusion
•Your thesis must be supported by facts,
examples, reasons, and other objective research
in the body of your essay. The essay ends with a
conclusion that neatly wraps up your essay.

17. Four Ways to Develop an Expository Essay
•Topic: systematically organizes information about
a topic (someone or something) in the most
logical fashion, for example, from the least
important to the most important characteristics
of a mammal.

18. Four Ways to Develop an Expository Essay cont..
1. Time order: involves the sequential or chronological
organization of information from one time period to
another. Arranges information according to date or
specific time, for instance, from the earliest to the
most recent or vice versa. An essay about armed
conflict in the Middle East might use this type of
organization.

19. •Space Order: involves the spatial organization of
ideas. Refers to information that deals with the
location of people, places, or things; for example,
the nearest planet to the farthest away from
Earth.

20. Argumentative Essays
• Argumentative essays are used to either explain or defend a
personal opinion.
• Before starting to write this type of essay take a few
moments and ask yourself the following questions:
• What have I read recently ,or what can I read quickly &
easily, before I write that will help me to support my reason
for holding this opinion?

21. ..........
• What have I learned about this subject from TV,
movies or radio that will help me to support my
opinion?
• What have I learned from reliable friends, parents,
other relatives & teachers that will help me to support
my reason for my opinion

22. Other considerations for Argumentative Essays
• What is my opposition’s reason for believing differently ?
• Who is my audience?
• Which points about my topic best illustrate why I believe as I
do?
• Use of a pro and con sheet may help to clarify the points
most relevant to your argument.
• Use the appropriate tense

23. Argumentative Essays cont.…
• This type of essay can be done in one of four different ways:
• By first presenting your points and then refuting the points of your
opposition
• By refuting your opposition’s points then presenting your points and their
support
• By presenting your first point and its support which refutes your
opposition’s first point, and continue the same process with your second
and third point, etc.
• By presenting a point for your belief and then a point that refutes the
opposition’s belief.

24. Descriptive Essay
What is it?
• A descriptive essay tells about a certain topic or story, using
details to appeal to the five senses.
• It gives readers the ability to vividly imagine the situation or
scene and feel as if they are experiencing it first hand.
• To write a descriptive essay, you could choose a person,
place, event, object, or experience and describe it
thoroughly using many sensory details.

25. Guidelines for writing a descriptive essay:
• Use sensory details. Appeal to sight, sound, smell, taste, and
touch.
• Use active verbs (in which the subject is doing the acting
instead of being acted upon by something or someone else.)
• Also, use a variety of sentence types, such as a simple
sentence complex sentence or compound complex sentence

26. Guidelines cont.……….
• Avoid vague language, such as “pretty,” “really,” “a lot,” and
“very.”
• Create a dominant impression (overall attitude, mood, or
feeling about the subject), such as causing the readers to
sympathize with you about a sad event that happened or to
agree with you strongly on a certain controversial topic.
• Choose the details and descriptions that will help accomplish
this impression.

27. Guidelines cont.……….
• Use comparisons. In order to help make the descriptions even more vivid
to the reader, use similes (such as “His emotional state was like a roller
coaster.”)
• metaphors (such as “Her smile was a ray of sunlight in the dark sea of
unfamiliar faces.”)
• personification (giving human characteristics to an object, such as “The
wind howled in my ears and beckoned me to walk further into the forest.”),
and analogies (brief stories that relate to the topic).
• chronological (the order in which events happened), least-to-most, or
• most-to-least.

28. Compare/Contrast Essay
A compare/contrast essay may discuss . . .
• the likenesses and differences between two places, like New
York City and İstanbul;
• the similarities and differences between two religions, like
İslam and Christianity;
• two people, like my brother and myself.

29. Compare and contrast essay cont.…..
• The compare/contrast essay discusses the similarities and differences
between two things, people, concepts, places, etc.
• The essay could be an unbiased discussion, or an attempt to convince the
reader of the benefits of one thing, person, or concept.
• It could also be written simply to entertain the reader, or to arrive at an
insight into human nature.
• The essay could discuss both similarities and differences, or it could just
focus on one or the other.
• A comparison essay usually discusses the similarities between two things,
while the contrast essay discusses the differences.

30. Cause/Effect Essay
A cause/effect essay may explain . . .
• why a volcano erupts, and what happens afterwards
• what happens after a loved one's death.
oThe cause/effect essay explains why or how some event happened,
and what resulted from the event.
oThis essay is a study of the relationship between two or more events
or experiences.
oA cause essay discusses the reasons why something happened.